Self-confidence is something everyone loves to have. And building one’s confidence is not so difficult. In fact, you can build your confidence from scratch. There are various ways to go about this. Some of the ways that you can use to build your confidence from scratch will be discussed.

AVOID NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

The first criterion for building self-confidence is to avoid all negative thoughts. To build your confidence from scratch, you should do away with all your negative thoughts because negative thoughts are a stumbling block and they prevent people from reaching their full potential. Thoughts like “I cannot do this”, “This is impossible”, “I will likely fail if I try this”, “This is not for people like me”, and other similar thoughts must be avoided. People who usually find excuses to avoid doing things are known to exhibit lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

If you must build your confidence, you need to learn to do things. You have to believe in yourself. Undertake tasks and do not be scared of failing. It is better to try and fail than never to try at all. Trying makes you get better at what you do. And the better you get, the more confident you are about doing that thing. To buttress this point, there is a proverb that says “practice makes perfect.” This means that the more you practice something, the better you get at it. And being good at doing something plays a huge role in developing your self-confidence.

There is also a saying that “those who said it cannot be done should not interrupt those that are trying to do it.” This is a very powerful quote that needs to be put into practice. If you want to build your self-confidence then you should join the category of people who get things done by trying and not the category of people who believe that they cannot do it. In order to be able to achieve this, try to create positive thoughts. Thoughts like “I know that I can do this”, “I can succeed if I try to do this”, “People who have been doing this are not better than me”, “if somebody can do this then I should be able to”, and so on.

DEVELOP YOURSELF

Going to school or being educated will equip you with resources needed to become successful in your career. However, developing yourself will make you have confidence. If you want to build your self-esteem and increase your knowledge in any field then you have to develop yourself. It is not compulsory that you must sit for every exam but just ensure that you read books on various topics, and read widely. Numerous successful people have confirmed that reading widely improves their vocabulary and language skills, which in turn, boosts their confidence. Most of these successful people do not usually have time to undertake lectures, go to classrooms, complete assignments and carry out other activities required of students taking professional and/or developmental courses. So, they ensure that read different books whenever they are free or when they want to relax.

THINK OF HOW YOU WANT TO BE

Another way that you can build your confidence is to visualize or imagine how you to want to be. Having an idea or a perception of how you want to be will make it possible for you to have a plan that will guide you to successfully achieve your goals. Visualisation has been known to be a very useful technique that helps people struggling with low self-confidence to build their confidence.

LOVE YOUR PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

One factor that can make someone to have a low self-confidence is hating or disliking his physical appearance. The trick to change this perception is to always look in the mirror and appreciate what you see. Do not compare yourself to anybody else. Instead of trying to be somebody else, develop yourself into who other people will want to be like. When you look at yourself in the mirror, say “I know that I am special, and I can become who I want to be”. You can equally make other positive and uplifting statements.

As discussed above, believing in yourself plays a very crucial role in building your confidence.

TAKE ACTION

Do not only have positive thoughts and/or believe in yourself but also take action. Taking action is the most important factor in personal development and building of self-confidence. Successful people did not become successful by just having positive thoughts but by taking actions to bring their thoughts to reality.

People who want to become successful must have self-confidence, they must be tenacious, they must be passionate, they must be aggressive, they must be persistent, and most importantly, they must be hardworking. So, if you wish to be successful then you should adopt all those attributes that are listed.

ASSOCIATE WITH SUPPORTIVE PEOPLE

Associating with the people who love you is another way that you can build your confidence. These people can be family and friends. However, among friends and family, there are people who can dampen your spirit, the killjoys. Try as much as possible to stay away from such people. The point here is that you should get closer to the people who will commend you when you do something good and avoid those that will criticize you when you make a mistake. The more you receive commendations, the more your confidence increases.

Finally, it is always strongly advocated that people build confidence from scratch so that it will be easy for them to succeed in a dynamic world or environment. Consequently, it should be known that the people who have remarkable confidence and self-esteem are those that learned how to build them from scratch.

Umair Khan